A BILL to amend and reenact §18-7A-25 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to medical examinations to qualify
for a disability annuity under the Teachers Retirement System.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That §18-7A-25 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.

§18-7A-25. Eligibility for retirement allowance.

(a) Any member who has attained the age of sixty years or who
has had thirty-five years of total service as a teacher in West
Virginia, regardless of age, is eligible for an annuity. No new
entrant nor present member is eligible for an annuity, however, if
either has less than five years of service to his or her credit.

(b) Any member who has attained the age of fifty-five years
and who has served thirty years as a teacher in West Virginia is
eligible for an annuity.

(c) Any member who has served at least thirty but less than
thirty-five years as a teacher or nonteaching member in West
Virginia and is less than fifty-five years of age is eligible for
an annuity, but the annuity shall be the reduced actuarial
equivalent of the annuity the member would have received if the
member were age fifty-five at the time such annuity was applied
for.

(d) The request for any annuity shall be made by the member in
writing to the retirement board, but in case of retirement for
disability, the written request may be made by either the member or
the employer.

(e) A member is eligible for annuity for disability if he or
she satisfies the conditions in either subdivision (1) or (2) of
this subsection and meets the conditions of subdivision (3) of this
subsection as follows: (1) His or her service as a teacher or
nonteaching member in West Virginia must total at least ten years
and service as a teacher or nonteaching member must have been
terminated because of disability, which disability must have caused
absence from service for at least six months before his or her
application for disability annuity is approved. (2) His or her
service as a teacher or nonteaching member in West Virginia must
total at least five years and service as a teacher or nonteaching
member must have been terminated because of disability, which
disability must have caused absence from service for at least six
months before his or her application for disability annuity is
approved and the disability is a direct and total result of an act
of student violence directed toward the member. (3) An examination
by the member’s physician and a physician or physicians selected by
the retirement board must show that the member is at the time
mentally or physically incapacitated for service as a teacher, that
for that service the disability is total and likely to be permanent
and that he or she should be retired in consequence of the
disability.

(f) Continuance of the disability of the retired member shall
be established by medical examination, as prescribed in subdivision
(3), subsection (e) of this section, annually for five years after
retirement, and thereafter at such times required by the retirement
board. Effective July 1, 1998, a member who has retired because of
a disability may select an option of payment under the provisions
of section twenty-eight of this article: Provided, That any option
selected under the provisions of section twenty-eight of this
article shall be in all respects the actuarial equivalent of the
straight life annuity benefit the disability retiree receives or
would receive if the options under said section were not available
and that no beneficiary or beneficiaries of the disability
annuitant may receive a greater benefit, nor receive any benefit
for a greater length of time, than the beneficiary or beneficiaries
would have received had the disability retiree not made any
election of the options available under said section. In
determining the actuarial equivalence, the board shall take into
account the life expectancies of the member and the beneficiary:
Provided, however, That the life expectancies may at the discretion
of the board be established by an underwriting medical director of
a competent insurance company offering annuities. Payment of the
disability annuity provided in this article shall cease immediately
if the retirement board finds that the disability of the retired
teacher no longer exists, or if the retired teacher refuses to
submit to medical examination as required by this section.

________________

(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require a medical
examination performed by a member’s selected physician showing the
member is mentally or physically totally incapacitated for service
and that the disability is likely to be permanent; consistent with
current practice by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)